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Airbnb (ABNB) stock surged more than 14% in early trading Friday following an earnings beat as CEO Brian Chesky said he wanted to make the vacation home marketplace app more than a destination for people seeking a place to stay.

"We want the Airbnb app, kind of similar to Amazon (AMZN), to be one place you go for all of your traveling and living needs," Chesky said during the company's post-earnings conference call Thursday. "A place to stay is just really, frankly, a very small part of the overall equation."

In its shareholder letter on Thursday the company announced plans to launch "one or a couple of businesses" adjacent to travel every year for the next four or five years.

Latest on the love... sorry live blog:

On cocoa prices, Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, said:

Stocks in the cryptocurrency exchange were in correction territory in pre-market trading after surging by nearly 9% in the previous session.

Coinbase's (COIN) total revenue for Q4 reached $2.27bn, marking an 88% increase from the previous quarter and surpassing the analyst consensus of $1.87bn.

Transaction revenue, which constitutes the bulk of Coinbase’s (COIN) earnings, surged 172% quarter-over-quarter to $1.6bn.

Meanwhile, subscription and services revenue grew 15%, reaching $641m, buoyed by the increase in crypto asset prices and growth in staking, custody, and USDC assets.

For the quarter, Coinbase (COIN) reported a net income of $1.3bn, which included $476m in pre-tax gains from its crypto asset investment portfolio.

"2024 was a strong year for crypto and for Coinbase (COIN) – our revenue more than doubled to $6.6bn, net income was $2.6bn, and we generated $3.3bn of adjusted Ebitda," said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Livesquawk has it:

New data out Friday showed retail sales declined more than expected in the first month of 2025.

Headline retail sales fell 0.9% in January, more than the 0.2% decline economists had expected, according to Bloomberg data. This marked the largest month-over-month decline in retail sales since January 2024.

Retail sales in December were revised up to 0.7% from a prior reading that showed a 0.4% increase in the month, according to Census Bureau data.

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Oil prices rose on Friday, boosted by higher demand and signals of a more gradual approach on reciprocal trade tariffs.

Brent crude futures were up 0.6% to $75.45 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 0.5% to $71.61 per barrel.

According to Reuters, JPMorgan (JPM) analysts said in a report on Friday that global oil demand had jumped to 103.4 million barrels per day (bpd), which represented an increase of 1.4 million bpd year-on-year.

"Initially sluggish, demand for mobility and heating fuels picked up in the second week of February, suggesting the gap between actual and projected demand will soon narrow," analysts reportedly said.

"Heating fuel use is expected to rise again. Additionally, soaring gas prices in Europe could prompt a shift from gas to oil, boosting demand."

The day traders’ favourite meme stock GameStop (GME) popped by over 7% in pre-market trading after a CNBC report that the video game retailer is considering investing in alternative assets such as bitcoin (BTC-USD) and other cryptocurrencies.

Citing unnamed sources, the report, published after Thursday’s market close, revealed that GameStop (GME) is exploring whether to allocate funds into crypto and other alternative investment options.

The news follows an intriguing development: GameStop (GME) CEO Ryan Cohen shared a photo of himself with Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy (MSTR) and the largest corporate holder of bitcoin. However, CNBC clarified that Saylor is not currently involved in GameStop's discussions on crypto investments.

Once at the heart of the pandemic-era meme stock frenzy, GameStop's (GME) shares are down 16% year-to-date as of Thursday’s close. Nevertheless, the stock has experienced a remarkable 85% increase over the last 12 months, partially driven by social media influencers like "Roaring Kitty" (aka Keith Gill), who have sparked renewed interest among retail investors.

Here are the latest figures for the bloc:

Economists had predicted no growth by the end of 2024, but new figures show an uptick of 0.1%.

German and French economies shrank by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively in the quarter, while Spain’s grew by 0.8% – gaining 3.5% over the course of 2024.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bellm said:

More than 340,000 people stepped on to the property ladder last year, with new buyers putting down a deposit of just over £61,000 on average, according to figures from Halifax.

The number of first-time buyers rose to 341,068 last year, up 19% compared to 2023, the lender said. First-time buyers made up over half (54%) of all home purchases made with a mortgage last year, the biggest majority on record.

The average first-time buyer in 2024 was 33 years old, two years older than ten years ago and the oldest in two decades. They put down an average deposit of £61,090 and typically paid £311,034 for their first home.

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Stock is around 1.9% lower in early trade following results.

Pedro Goncalves writes:

NatWest (NWG.L) reported a bigger-than-expected profit for 2024 and hiked dividends as the lender said it is confident it will fully return to private ownership this year.

Pre-tax operating profit came in at £6.2bn for the year ended 31 December, 0.3% higher than 2023 and above analysts' forecasts of £6.1bn. Attributable profit rose to £4.5bn against £4.39bn in the previous year.

A final dividend of 15.5p a share has increased the total for the year by 26% to 21.5p, meaning total distributions to shareholders of £4bn.

Operating expenses rose by £213m or 2.8% from the previous year, attributed in part to a retail share offering and additional bank levies. Excluding these costs, the increase was 1.1%. The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) lender also reported a net impairment charge of £359m for 2024.

Read more on Yahoo Finance UK

US stocks were tepid in premarket, as traders look for fresh signals on international tariffs.

From our US team:

US stocks moved higher on Thursday after President Donald Trump said he plans to introduce reciprocal tariffs but delayed their implementation, while investors digested another report that suggested inflation is once again heating up.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added more than 0.7%, or over 350 points, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) put on over 1% and closed at 6,115.06, just shy of its record close of 6,118.71 . The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose more than 1.5% as Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) rallied.

Markets took a fresh tariff announcement from Trump in stride. In a briefing Thursday afternoon, Trump called for "fair and reciprocal" tariffs on all US trading partners. But the measure he signed fell short of immediately implementing those tariffs. Instead, they would go into effect as early as April, theoretically leaving wiggle room for any countries to negotiate before then.

Hello from London. Happy Friday — happy Valentine's Day!

This morning we've been covering NatWest (NWG.L) results. Later we'll be looking at eurozone GDP growth estimates.

Hermes (RMS.PA), Moderna (MRNA) and Coca Cola (KO) also report results on Friday.

Let's get to it.